St. Louis Post-Dispatch Pat Gauen column Quinn might seem the wrong guy, but be the right guy, to propose tax hike

Pat Gauen

Mar. 19, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Because my office is in Missouri, I pay more in state income taxes than if I worked as well as lived in Illinois. If I both lived and worked in Missouri, the difference would be even more.

License plates cost more in Illinois. But Missouri residents pay personal property taxes that we on the east side don't. Trying to make direct comparisons of different states' tax bites can be difficult. But by all apparent measures, Illinois is a low-income-tax state.

Gov. Pat Quinn proposed Wednesday that we close some of the gap by increasing the state income tax rate on individuals by 50 percent. In so doing, he planted his foot firmly on the "third rail" of politics, so called for the steel strip that carries high voltage to subway trains. The meaning: "Touch it and you die."

Illinois governors have long been adept at dancing over that rail with barely a spark. Our nearly flat 3 percent income tax hasn't changed in 20 years.

Oh, increases have been talked about before. State Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch based her 1994 Democratic campaign for governor on raising income taxes and lowering property taxes, with more of the former than the latter.

Her foot stuck fast to that third rail and she got the political equivalent of the biggest electrocution this side of the botched execution scene in the movie "The Green Mile."

So what's with Quinn?

You could argue that he arrives at this a little short, mandate-wise. The people didn't exactly elect him. The Democrats nominated him for lieutenant governor. He was on the general election ballot in tandem with gubernatorial candidate Rod Blagojevich. A vote for one was a vote for both. But I doubt that very many voters marked their box because of Quinn's name.

Quinn didn't win the governor's spot, he inherited it after Blagojevich got himself charged with selling favors, impeached and thrown out of office.

Moreover, Quinn's tax proposal will hand Republicans -- and maybe even some fellow Democrats -- a large club with which to pummel him when he runs next year for election in his own name.

I haven't even gotten to the part where many economists think it's a mistake to raise taxes in a recession.

So I ask again, what's with Quinn?

The answer is, he doesn't seem to have much choice.

Blagojevich, preening himself for national office, made it crystal clear over six years in office that he would never break his no-tax-increase pledge, even if it meant state troopers patrolling the interstates on bicycles.

Blagojevich and other pols squeezed costs to the point where mechanics could barely keep those troopers' cars on the road. To the point where hospitals and doctors and pharmacies are, because their state payments are so delayed, effectively making interest-free loans to the state. To the point where state employee pensions were under-funded even before the bottom fell out of the stock market.

Illinois is running out of things to cut.

The new governor has to face all of this as the new budget comes due during the worst economic climate in a lifetime. Next year's revenue is estimated to fall short by almost $1,000 for every resident of the state. That's way beyond fixing with the driving and cigarette tax hikes he also recommended. An income tax increase may be the only tool big enough.

And Quinn might be the perfect guy to wield it.

What he lacks in mandate, he makes up in the public's relief that Blagojevich is gone. Quinn was never by any stretch a Blagojevich ally. They had stopped speaking long ago.

Quinn has credibility in his long record as champion for populist causes and frugality. He was a key player in setting up the 1980 referendum that cut the size of the Illinois House by one-third, and to create the Consumer Utility Board as a foil to rate increases. He is known to stay at the Super 8. Coming from this guy, a tax increase has to be a last resort.

He has the benefit of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, which after years of Blagojevich's all-about-me antics are hungry for a governor willing to collaborate.

Of course, I do not want to pay higher taxes any more than you do. The proposal needs to be subjected to vigorous debate before we know if it's the right thing.

I do know that even under Quinn's plan, my state income tax would be less than if I lived in Missouri.

I also know that I want good services delivered without the smoke, mirrors and accounting tricks that keep pushing the bill into our children's future.

And I want those children to see that there are elected officials brave enough to take on the third rail.

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